Happy Halloween
by LoveMeNever
Summary: It's Halloween in Jackson and everyone is trying to get into the spooky spirit, some more than others.


Dina _loved _Halloween. One might think with the whole zombie apocalypse, that most people forgot about holidays, but in Jackson, Tommy and Maria tried their hardest to keep the old traditions alive. To keep things normal for young kids growing up there. They had the idea this year to throw a spooky Halloween costume party and haunted house. Dina already had ideas about what she might wear, and possibly even what Ellie could wear. Needless to say, she was excited and ready to go all out. Ellie, on the other hand, was not that thrilled about any of it.

"I just don't see the point of having a haunted house when we go into scarier houses on patrol?" Ellie reasoned when Dina brought her the news.

Frowning at her girlfriend, Dina sighed heavily, "C'mon it's not about that, it's about having _fun _while going through a haunted house that you know is fake. And we could dress up as one of the superhero duos you read about in those comic books." She finished the sentence in a sing-song voice trying her best to convince Ellie.

She seemed to ponder it for a second, so Dina decided she needed an extra little bit of persuasion. She stood _very _close to Ellie and swung her arms around her neck loosely, like they were going to start slow dancing. "Unless…" she cooed, "you're a _scaredy-cat._ Then I guess I can't blame you for not wanting to go."

"First of all, fuck you, you've literally seen me go into a pitch black room with clickers everywhere." Ellie argued calmly and with a bit of humor in her voice.

"Doesn't mean you aren't afraid of ghosts." Dina said simply and shrugged her shoulders. Her face broke out into a small smile at the number of times Ellie's facial expressions changed from disbelief to confusion. Dina put her finger to her lips and shushed her when she went to say something. "It's okay, I get it. Big bad Ellie is afraid of Halloween."

Ellie just stared at her, and Dina could see the internal battle she had. Finally, it looked like she just gave up because her shoulders sagged a little. "Okay you win, I'll go with you to the party-"

"_And _the haunted house?"

"Yes, _and _the haunted house. God, you're terrible."

Dina snickered and quickly gave her girlfriend a kiss, she was thrilled that she succeeded in persuading her. Not that she had had any doubts to begin with, she was Ellie's one weakness after all.

The night of the party Dina half expected Ellie to come up with some lame excuse as to why she couldn't make it. Alas, here she was in all her glory… dressed as a vigilante from her comic books. It wasn't that the concept of the costume was bad, it was a matter of _how _Ellie had scraped together the costume. She wore a cape that was nothing but an old, once red but now brown, blanket, and her mask over her eyes was just a black tie with holes cut out of it. What _really _topped it off, though, was the shirt under the cape. Ellie had taken a bright blue shirt and painted a big, yellow V on the chest which stood for vigilante.

Dina had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing, but it was no use, Ellie saw the amusement before she could snuff it out. "Oh c'mon, fuck you, I tried!" Ellie tried to sound serious but even she couldn't keep a straight face. Dina dodged as her girlfriend tried to punch her arm playfully.

"I'm sorry, babe… I don't mean to laugh, it's just…" Dina started to say, but she couldn't quite find the right word for how Ellie's costume looked. "Unique?"

"A.K.A, it's horrible, I know dude I tried to find some decent shit to use but this was all I could come up with. It's sort of close!" Ellie gestured at herself in exasperation and it was so cute that Dina couldn't stop herself from kissing her cheek.

She didn't want Ellie to get embarrassed and not stay at the party so she stepped back and held her hands up with she was taking a picture, "Hmm… you know, I think it's cute. And you're basically a real life superhero anyways so it fits you. I love it!"

"Now that's just cheesy." Ellie said but failed to hide her smile and blush. It made her look even cuter, Dina thought. "So are we going to this haunted house or what?"

"Not so fast! We still have a little while before Tommy has it completely ready, so let's just enjoy the party, shall we?" Dina grabbed her hand and pulled her into the kitchen where a mini bar had been set up and got them both drinks. Then Dina dragged Ellie out to the dance floor and made her dance with her, even though Ellie felt she wasn't a good enough dancer to be out there. After a while, it was finally time to head to the haunted house.

Dina and Ellie stood in line as they waited and Jesse walked up beside them. He was wearing a vampire costume with fangs and he had a red fake blood line coming down from his lips. "Hey, you two. Nice costumes." He said while avoiding eye contact with Dina. She rolled her eyes a little, annoyed that he _still _couldn't act like a normal person around her.

"Thanks, Jesse." Dina said curtly. She could see Ellie eye her oddly from the corner of her eye but she chose to ignore it.

"Alright everybody form a single file line through the house, we'll let groups of five or six in at a time. Please no pushing or shoving or running in the house! If you get lost or feel uncomfortable just follow some of the exit signs." Tommy yelled to the large group. He winked at Ellie and Dina, "Girls, if you would be so kind as to go right on in!"

Dina smiles her best smile at him, "Great job, Tommy! This year is going to go down in history as the best post-apocalypse Halloween."

She watched as Ellie rolled her eyes and walked through the front doors of the house like she owned the place. That was the way Ellie was though, Dina had no doubt she would make this place her bitch. Or at least act like it. She couldn't wait. Jesse motioned for Dina to go first in a gentlemanly kind of way, but she had a suspicion he just didn't want to go first. Even when they dated, he couldn't stand the horror films or any scary books. She chased after Ellie and grabbed on to the back of her shirt when she found her because it was near impossible to see in the darkness around them. The only source of light were creepy blacklights set up around the hallways and rooms. Around each light was an equally creepy scene. The first one they came across, in what would have been the living room, was a kid dressed in all white except for the blood dripping down her dress and her makeup was done so it looked like she was a ghost. The blacklight gave her an eerie glow too.

"Can you come play with me?" She said, again, very creepy. Dina felt Ellie tense slightly as they ignored the cries from the ghost girl and continued down into the hallway. She smirked a little to herself at Ellie's reaction as they passed.

The rest of the haunted house was spooky but nothing they couldn't handle. It wasn't until the very end at a part of the house completely pitch black, besides the exit signs, that Dina decided to prank Ellie. They were in a part of the house set up in a maze-like fashion, Dina wasn't sure what Tommy had put up to make so many walls, but it still wasn't scary enough. Unsurprisingly, the house had yet to phase her girlfriend but Dina was determined to get her spooked somehow. Therefore, she took it upon herself to kick things up a notch, so she did the only rational thing she knew to do and _disappeared._ One minute she was holding on to Ellie's flannel sweater and the next she was heading to the exit sign as swiftly and quietly as possible. The exit just led her through what once was the sliding door to the backyard.

She smiled when she saw Tommy snooping around in a clown mask. There were extra entryways into the maze part where he was popping in occasionally on an unfortunate kid. He spotted Dina, "What are you doing out here, Dina. Is everything okay? The house wasn't too much was it?" He pulled off his mask leaving it resting on the top of his head, and she couldn't help but think how dorky he looked. He was sort of like the whole camp's dad.

"No, it's great! I'm actually trying to scare Ellie… do you have an extra mask I can use?"

Tommy gave her a questioning glance but inevitably gave her his own clown mask. She thanked him and headed toward the exit of the haunted house. Ellie should be getting out of the house by now and she was probably frantically looking for her.

As she suspected, Ellie emerged from the house with a confused and worried furrow in her brow. She spun around and stared at the exit where Jesse and others were finishing their walk through. Dina snickered when she saw how shaken up Jesse seemed by the house. She put that sight from her mind and waited until there weren't as many people coming from the house. Ellie now was almost in full-panic mode that Dina only ever saw when they were out on patrol. "Dina?! If you're hiding in there come out, this isn't funny dude!" Ellie called inside the house. Dina had to suppress her laughter. Some would call this cruel, and they might be right, but the payoff would be _epic _if she could pull it off.

She hid behind a tall wooden fence that separated the haunted house from another yard. There was a gate that was cracked open enough so that Dina could clearly see Ellie. She heard Ellie sigh heavily, "I'm going to leave now, Dina, so whatever you're trying to do isn't going to work." The lanky teen stared at the entrance a little longer like she thought that would make Dina come out, but after a moment, Dina saw her roll her eyes and she briskly walked back into the haunted house muttering a string of curse words. _Bingo. _Dina grinned and followed after her.

Dina waited until Ellie's back was turned to quietly sneak up behind her. The clown mask was pulled over her face and she ignored the limited field of vision and limited amount of oxygen she was getting. The maze was harder to navigate especially now that she could barely see through the tiny eye slits in the mask, but she'd be damned if she let that stop her. Ellie was none the wiser when Dina pounced. Except, Dina lost her footing because she couldn't see where she was going and just tripped into Ellie's back instead. Ellie and Dina both let out a surprised yell and fell to the ground with an 'oof.'

"What the-" Ellie said, she turned her head around as much as she could with the weight of Dina on top of her and again yelled in surprise. "Oh shit!"

Dina pulled off the clown mask and laughed at Ellie's face. "Oh my god! You should've seen your face!"

Ellie tried to sit up, "Wha… Dina?! You scared the hell outta me! What the hell is wrong with you!"

"I did it! I scared the fearless Ellie!"

"You mean to tell me you did all that just to _scare _me?"

Dina grinned ear to ear, "Yep, although I think it might've gone better if I hadn't tripped. Either way, I see this as a win! Annnnnd… maybe next year you can try to get revenge on me…" she bit her lower lip seductively before pecking Ellie with a quick kiss on the cheek.

Ellie rolled her eyes in the cute way she pretends to be annoyed but Dina could see the affection still there. That meant she wasn't mad about the situation at least. "Okay, psycho, get off me. You've started a war that I think you'll end up regretting."

There was no way Dina would regret it, in fact, her main goal was not only to scare Ellie tonight, but to get her more involved with the holidays and start enjoying them more. Ellie needed loosening up and Dina was determined to be the one to do it. "Happy Halloween, babe."


End file.
